, 1887-10-01
TREATMENT OF NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA
A Milk Diet Recommended at First.
When Appetite Returna.

A Milk Diet Recommended at First.
When Appetite Returns.
We should first recommend a milk
diet-lukewarm milk, with or without
crushed rusk. Unfortunately, through
the habit of using highly seasoned dishes
from youth up, we often find an aversion
to milk. To cover its taste with sweet is
not to the purpose, but we have at times
added a small quantity of malt extract.
The addition of cognac to the milk, as is
used with phthisical patients, is equally
%imprudent. The best thing to give it an
agreeable taste is a little table salt. Among
other things we may add a little cocoa,
deprived of oil, but with little ~sweetening,
and some interruption, as in many cases
an aversion for cocoa sets in. Tea is in
some cases tolerated when cocoa causes
loathing, but coffee has a dyspeptic effect.
Tea has a tendency, especially if strong,
to produce nervous p~alpitation of the
heart, and, if left too long or the leaves,
dyspepsia. If none of these beverages
can be taken, we may at first use soup
for breakfast. Ambiguous substances
here especially find their place, and in the
preparation of such among these as barley,
oats, rice, ETC., the ~precaution to have
them long and thoroughly boiled should
be given. For a second breakfast, some
bouillon free from fat, with an egg; at
o q plate of soup, with a correspond
ing portion of extract of meat. The last
meal of the day ought to be taken at
least two hours before going to bed, and
should consist of beef tea, with eggs and
stale white breld. Milk may ut any time
be taken in place of one of these meals;
30 may eggs beaten with a little salt and
water.
According to physiological experiments
on digestion, boiled albumen appears to
be more easily and rapidly digested, but
in reality raw albumen is more easily
peptonized than the solldly cooked Jumps
Of albumen, because the movement
of the stomach separate it easily, and it
is soon saturated with gastric juice.
If the appetite gradually returns, and
the articles of food named are tolerated
in larger quantities, we may intercalate
another meal; the soup may also be pre-
pared from scraped beef. and the latter
eaten with it. Gradually q saucerful of
The articles already mentioned may be
taken every two or three hours. This
amount will be sufficient for a long
time.
If, under this regimen, gastric diSes-
ton takes a normal and rapid course, the
sense of hunger may be felt oftener than
every two or three hours, but the patient
should not yield to his cravings. The
time will then soon arrive when more
consistent food can be taken, especially
properly cooked meat. The opinion that
so called white meat is especially well
borne has not always been confirmed in
practice. 1t may, perhaps, be the case
with pigeon and chicken, ETC., but the
veal is certainly barely tolerated, owing,
probably, to the large o of gela-
tine it contains. AS a rule, boiled meat
is better tolerated than roast; and cold
roast better than warm, and this is par
ticularly true of game. With the latter,
fat gravy, and the fat of pork especially,
plays a very injurious part. Meat not
smoking process will spoil this advantage.
The flesh of geese and ducks is difficult
to digest.
Most patients will dislike to dispense
with vegetables, but the very lightest of
those only should be allowed until after
improvement has made such progress; we
may then allow carrots, spinach and to-
matoes; lettuce and salads. and especially
potato salad, should be strictly forbidden.
If the patient chafes under the prohibi-
ton of all kinds of preserves, he may,
when convalescent, partake of stewed
cranberries, strained and sweetened.
Dyspeptics cannot bear raw fruit at all.
In all cases where circumstance will
not permit the diet which has been de-
scribed, a milk diet will be the best thing.
Or when place and time are favorable,
Krukenberg's direction: when you are
hungry eat buttermilk, and when you
are thirsty drink buttermilk, " should be
be observed. This milk, freed from the
large mass of %casein, is a real panacea,
and a dietary course of it is easily carried
u in the country during the summer
season. But caution prescribes that it
should not be taken simultaneously with
other food, as the rule not to drink wher
you eat, and not to eat when you drink,
is even more imperative for dyspeptics
than for persons suffering from adiposity.
Patients arc most difficult to manage in
regard to their diet after they begin to
feel better; and when, in consequence of
their long fasting and their necessarily re-
duced condition, a strong desire for food
is manifested, an adequate addition OF
fat of the proper consistency will greatly
lessen the danger of excess.-Ihring in
journal of Iietetics.